Regular readers know that in May, just before giving a dinner speech, I learned that my younger brother Steve had died that day. I blogged about how I’d hardly known him, and my sister Suede (much closer to his age) replied about what a loss that was. Lots of you commented, here and on Facebook and email.
Separately, last week I posted that after years of wanting to be a Parrothead, I’m finally going to my first Jimmy Buffett concert Tuesday night. I blogged about wanting to learn everything I could about Parrothead culture.
Suede wrote again – and guess who was a bigtime Parrothead:
Steve
You will have a blast. Too bad stevo isn’t around…he was a huge, huge buffett fan and knew every single piece of exactly what came with it. … he loved having all the back story and history on everything that got his attention, researched that tirelessly, then loved to tell all of it to anyone willing to listen. He knew all there is to know about jimmy buffett, I’m pretty sure … have a blast.
What do we lose when we don’t speak our wants to our families? And when we don’t listen to them? One of Buffett’s biggest songs is “Cheeseburger in Paradise” – and I thought, “Paradise Lost.” What I’d longed for (in silence) was under my nose, and now it’s gone.
Well Stevo, here’s to you – here’s to the tailgating we never shared. I’ll make it a good one and think of the elbows we never bent.
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